November 1949

"I'm afraid people too often have a hazy notion about what the Society is and what it does. I consider our first job a job of prevention...The prevention of neglect and delinquency of children. One usually follows from the other: stop neglect and you stop delinquency."

QSPCC Director Vincent DeFrancis

Long Island Press -- March 6, 1965

"We're working with children who have no place to turn. We're trying to give youngsters whose families have hit rock bottom a chance to look up."

QSPCC Director Catherine E. Corbett

January 21, 1968

"During any given month, our caseworkers service 900 children in their own homes, and during the course of the year, 1,700 different children are served in their homes. Our aim is to offer the most qualified help we can to see to it that as many children as possible remain in their own homes."

QSPCC Director Ruth Mullen

January 28, 1982

In Queens, the statistics speak for themselves: In 1981, there were more than 4,000 reports of maltreatment of children. According to the QSPCC, the children involved and their parents were at a loss when searching for professional help. "Traditional mental health clinics were having trouble dealing with the problem," said Terri Scheiner, director of the Family Life Clinic, operated by the society [QSPCC].

Today, desperate parents and battered children can get help at the that clinic, the first of its kind.

Newsday

The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson

In 1873, a Methodist missionary found a dirty, thin, ragged and bruised 10-year-old orphan named Mary Ellen Wilson in a Manhattan tenement house. With legal help from Henry Bergh, the founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the missionary gained custody of Mary Ellen. The much publicized case inspired agencies to advocate for laws to rescue and protect abused children.

History

Safe Space's rich history spans more than 90 years of comprehensive and innovative services for children and families. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1874 that all children should be protected, the Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children were formed. Safe Space was founded in 1919 as the Queensboro SPCC with a mission to rescue vulnerable children from abusive situations.

A decade after QSPCC's founding, a group of committed volunteers opened the agency's first children's shelter. Safe Space led the way in children's services with endeavors such as the establishment of an on-site school.

By the late 1970s, the organization focused primarily on child abuse prevention. With a license to run mental health services, we became the first child protective agency in the state to include this essential component. Over time, Safe Space designed programs to address the needs of entire families in order to prevent abuse and neglect. Safe Space was -- and still is -- at the forefront of providing family-centered services. Throughout the 1980s and '90s, Safe Space expanded its programs throughout Queens and went into Manhattan to include educational outreach, HIV/AIDS prevention and case management services, group homes for foster youth, home-visiting programs for young pregnant and parenting mothers and the first ever residential program for HIV-positive homeless youth in New York State. Additionally, Safe Space began partnering with schools to provide services ranging from after-school programs to supportive care for youth and families with mental health issues.

Over the last several years, Safe Space has seen considerable change in the child welfare system in general and internally in our programs and services. Today, Safe Space continues to offer an integrated system of progressive services in the following core areas: Mental Health, Community Health, At-Risk Youth, Family Support and School Partnerships. The agency continues to be a leader in youth and family services with innovative programs that reflect our mission since 1919: to protect kids, keep them safe, and help them grow. To achieve this, Safe Space employs an estimated 152 full-time and 80 part-time staff members. Our staff is recruited from the communities in which we work and reflects the demographics of the population we serve. According to our study for the annual report for FY 2009, of our full-time staff, 52% are African-American, 30% are Latino and 46% can provide services in a language other than English.